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Journalism of Courage
The stage for the Telangana Assembly polls battle is set with the Election Commission (EC) announcing on Monday that the state would go to polls on November 30.
Amongst the most high-profile constituencies in this contest are Gajwel and Kamareddy. These are the two seats from which Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, would be contesting from.
Rao, who had announced BRS candidates for 115 of the total 119 Assembly seats on August 21, said he was contesting from two segments because of “requests’ from leaders within the party. His home constituency Gajwel is spread across Siddipet and Medak districts, and Kamareddy in the district of the same name.
The Congress and the BJP have been saying that KCR’s decision was indicative of his lack of confidence from Gajwel and that he has gone for a “safe” second seat. In 2014, KCR won Gajwel – which is made up of Gajwel, Toopran, Kondapaka, Jagdevpur, Wargal, and Mulug – by defeating TDP’s Pratap Reddy Vanteru by 19,391 votes. In 2018, KCR repeated the win with a huge majority and again defeated Vanteru, who joined the Congress, by more than 58,000 votes.
However, as per some in the Opposition, the BRS may have made the move to retain Kamareddy as they believe that incumbent MLA Gampa Govardhan, whose victory margin came down by a considerable extent last time, does not have that good a chance.
Sources in the BRS said Govardhan, who had been winning Kamareddy since 1994, had requested KCR to contest from his constituency.
This is also not the first time KCR is contesting two elections simultaneously. In 2014, he won the Gajwel Assembly seat and the Medak parliamentary constituency. But he resigned as the MP of Medak.
Why Kamareddy?
With almost 2.4 lakh voters, Kamareddy is a rapidly growing urban area known for its textiles markets, poultry farms, agriculture, and large agriculture market. According to political observers, the key to winning the constituency is the 20,000-odd Muslim votes. The constituency had a sizeable number of TDP supporters who shifted to the BJP. Without any base, the BJP polled 13,900 and 15,400 votes in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
TIll Govardhan began his winning streak in 2009, no MLA had won Kamareddy in consecutive elections.
“I have done good work here, thanks to the support of KCR. Due to the goodwill, people want to see the CM contesting from Kamareddy. They want to elect KCR from here and send him again as CM for the record third time,” said the four-time MLA.
Working to the advantage of the BRS is the support of the Muslim community. Though Govardhan defeated Congress leader Shabbir Ali by more than 18,000 votes in 2014, anti-incumbency and low polling brought down his margin to over 5,000 four years later.
Talking about KCR’s decision, Shabbir said, “KCR’s decision to contest from both Gajwel and Kamareddy means that he knew that Gampa Govardhan won’t be able to defeat me in the next elections. However, by deciding to contest against me, KCR has expressed his hatred towards Muslim leadership. I played a significant role in bringing 4% reservation for Muslims during the Congress rule. I was twice elected as an MLA and once as MLC and I was also the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council for almost four years. Since my victory in the coming elections from Kamareddy was certain, KCR entered Kamareddy to increase the chances of my defeat. But he will fail in this attempt and the people of Kamareddy will teach KCR the biggest lesson of his life.”
